Not dead.

Or, as one commenter hopefully speculated, married.

I've just gotten really busy, and also I lost my camera battery charger and was too cheap to buy a new one for $80. I eventually found a cheaper replacement, so now I can photograph these lovelies:


One FO, a Multnomah shawl in Fibre Company Road to China Light. I adore both this yarn and this pattern. The yarn is unbelievably soft and incredibly warm -- alpaca, camel and silk combine to make this like a little heater for my shoulders.

I am calling this my hubris shawl, because I had to rip it out and reknit it like 4 times, because I didn't bother to read the pattern very carefully.


I never thought I was a shawl person, but I love it, so I'm working on another, a Daybreak shawl in Sanguine Gryphon Bugga! Also an unbelievably gorgeous yarn, soft and kettle dyed. I'm not 100% sold on this color combination, but I'm waiting to see once there are more orange stripes.


And it's all orange and green/teal, all the time here, evidently, because I also made myself a pair of Endpaper mitts in two colors of Knitpicks Stroll yarn. They're already pilly after only a few weeks of use, but that's to be expected with this yarn, and it was super cheap.


Okay. I can't promise to blog with much more regularity, but I'll try. And at least now I can post pictures again!

Backstage pass (ish)

So a commenter has asked me to share how I store all my crafting supplies in a NYC apartment. I think I've posted this picture before, but here's my storage solution:


I have a whole armoire dedicated to yarn and fabric storage. I also have been making a concerted effort lately to keep my stash small and knit only from stash. So far it's worked. It is necessary in a small space not to waste too much of it on storing things you never use. But, I mean, there's a whole piece of storage furniture in my apartment just for craft supplies, so I'm certainly not a model of space-efficiency.

But I think the real reason I can do it is because I'm single. I have space for an armoire full of yarn because I don't need two dressers in my bedroom. That's also why I have been able to sew so much this summer. Normally, when my apartment is clean, my dining area looks like this:


But for much of the summer, that whole table was covered with piles of fabric, a sewing machine, a cutting station, and a blocking/ironing board. I could never do that if there were someone else living here -- let alone kids around.

Lemons, lemonade. Frankly I'd rather be married with kids, but in the meantime, I can knit and sew a lot.